Doughton Park: Cultural Landscape Inventory, Blue Ridge Parkway - Highlands District, National Park Service

Wheeler, Beth; Hasty, David; Lawliss, Lucy

This CLI, originally published in 2008, was updated in 2022 in order to better reflect existing conditions and fill out previously spare descriptions of key landscape characteristics and features. Observational data gathered in the field, as well as excerpted narrative and graphic data from "Doughton Park and Sections 2A, B and C: Cultural Landscape Report, Blue Ridge Parkway, National Park Service" (The Jaeger Company, 2006) and "Survey and Assessment, Blue Ridge Parkway - Appendix" (Wiss, Janney, Elstner Associates, Inc.. 2016) provided the basis for this update. Doughton Park is a recreation area located on the Blue Ridge Parkway between milepost 238 and 246. The landscape is 12 miles southeast of Sparta, North Carolina and 31 miles northwest of Wilkesboro, North Carolina. Covering over 6,000 acres, Doughton Park was one of the first developed areas to be planned for the Appalachian parkway. Bluffs Lodge, Doughton Park Campground, Doughton Park Maintenance Area, Bluffs Coffee Shop and Service Station, Bluffs Picnic Area, Brinegar Cabin, and Caudill Family Homestead are each component landscapes within Doughton Park. Doughton Park occupies an open highland meadow with forested areas extending to the south of the Parkway covering lower elevations and adjacent tracts of land. Formerly known as the Bluffs, the recreation area includes not only highland meadows (above 3,000 feet) and steep slopes, but Basin Cove and other creek valleys (1,500 feet). The meadow is maintained by a grazing and mowing regime with the surrounding forest managed as a natural resource. Meadow grasses, forbs, scattered trees, and flowering shrubs grow in the open areas and extend the landscape design of the Parkway to the recreation area. At higher elevations, a red oak forest community predominates, including northern red oak, red maple, tulip poplar, white oak, black locust, eastern hemlock, rosebay rhododendron, flame azalea, mountain laurel, and pagoda dogwood (replacing the once‑dominant American chestnut). The lower elevations are characterized by a diverse cove forest with no dominant species. The seven component landscapes are scattered along the linear Parkway and one landscape, Caudill Family Homestead, is nestled down slope in Basin Cove. Thirty‑seven buildings and six structures are within the landscape as well as vehicle and pedestrian circulation, small‑scale features, and undeveloped forest. The component landscapes are developed areas within Doughton Park that provide park facilities, visitor services, lodging, and interpretive exhibits. The remainder of the landscape is accessible by hiking trails. Historic features at Doughton Park, from cabins to fences to stone gutters, retain integrity. Forested areas and planting plans compose a varied landscape of designed visitor services, interpreted homesteads, pastoral agriculture, and natural resources. The Wildcat Overlook includes views of the forested slopes and Caudill Cabin. Circulation routes include hiking trails, pedestrian walkways, horse trails and vehicle roadways. Each component landscape has a description of the circulation in the landscape, while in addition to these routes, the Blue Ridge Parkway traverses almost 8 miles through the Doughton Park parent landscape. All major features contribute to the national significance of Blue Ridge Parkway as a potential National Historic Landmark property.

Doughton Park: Cultural Landscape Inventory, Blue Ridge Parkway - Highlands District, National Park Service

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